MoreYoga’s Shamir Sidhu on Why Yoga is so Popular in London

As MoreYoga opens in Clapham Junction, The Resident quizzes Director Shamir Sidhu on why yoga is so popular in London and MoreYoga’s plan to grow and make the practice accessible for all

Why is yoga so popular right now?Yoga is really popular and has been for some time. I have no doubt that this market is going to be here indefinitely and will continue to grow as the city continues to be more and more stressful. There are many theories for the upsurge in yoga, and here are the ones I believe in:

Stress: Yoga can bring calmness and clarity to a chaotic world.Fewer people being religious: Yoga has deep moralistic principles that people buy into to help them on a daily basis. Dig deeper and you really can live a much more wholesome life.Social media: Lots of photos on social media of fit bodies practicing yoga, I believe this is a really big driver. I feel that people see fit bodies on social media and believe that yoga is the way it is achieved, when that’s not necessarily the case. It can be a strong factor though.Obesity epidemic: It’s a good entry level for all people to start exercising.

Yoga can bring calmness and clarity to a chaotic world

Why was now the right time to open in Clapham Junction?
We are targeting all areas in London, we are constantly looking for the right properties at the right prices. Our plan is to have over 50 studios by 2020 so that’s around 13-14 studios to open a year for the next three years. Keep an eye on the website for studios opening in your area.

The new MoreYoga studio in Clapham Junction

MoreYoga studios have a clean, calm appearance

Affordable classes make MoreYoga accessible for all

Will this be different in any way to your other London studios?
As we are opening more and more studios we are fine tuning how we fit them out. We have a resident designer who is tweaking our branding in each studio. His name is Robert Bondar and his artistic skills are out of this world – check out @loiredesigns on Instagram. Our studios are super simple so at the same time we have to be careful not to over step our branding style. We are also installing green walls at some of our new studios. We have recently installed one at our Brixton studio, which all the clients and teachers love (check out @naturewallsltd).

Tell us what makes your classes stand out?
We are trying to blend a bit of the MoreFit elements into the MoreYoga world so that we have a bit of everything. A lot of people come to yoga for the fitness so it makes sense to make a small percentage of the classes more fitness orientated. We have created MoreFit Flo, a fitness-inspired vinyassa that students really like, and this year our studio co-ordinator Charlotte Wellfare is creating a class titled MoreYoga Flow – a unique sequence that is practiced thoughout all our studios. We have both sides of the scale. But we still have the traditional elements of yoga with Yin and meditation and Kundalini Yoga.

Is there a community feel around your studios?
100%. We are all about community. We pride ourselves on being a judgement-free company allowing every student to practice no matter their level. We are changing the demographic of the industry. Gone are the days that yoga is expensive. Our no showers, no reception approach allows us to bring more people into the practice with block classes starting from as low as £5 and even less on the unlimited monthly (if you come 20 times on the monthly pass it is less than £4 a class). The value of our product as well as the quality of the teaching is a big hit with over 2,500 people visiting our studios weekly.

The first MoreYoga studios opened in Exmouth Market and Old Street in 2015, followed by studios in Aldgate, Brixton, Camden, Finsbury Park, Stoke Newington and Clapham Junction. MoreYoga plans to have 12 studios by the end of 2017 and over 50 studios by 2020.